Sunday, May 25, 2008

We're moving back home at the end of this week. Finally! It seems this winter move has practically trickled into summer. At home the grass is long, the hills are covered with flowers, and the air is fresh. I can't wait to move back to the peace of the mountain. Ahh! Relaxation.

One problem. Stuff! We had a yardsale yesterday and got rid of a lot of things, but my gosh! How much stuff do we really need? We've been moving things from there to here and here to there. The living room is full of boxes, and we still have half our things in town.

My mission: get rid of anything we don't need. How long will this take? Judging by how long it takes me to just do my regular everyday things-a long, long time.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Yup, you heard me. Waiting is for losers. That is my new motto. Why? Because I lost my building today because we were waiting around for things to happen; not moving fast enough on loans and business plans and all the stuff you have to do to purchase a commercial building. And now somebody else has bought my building and stolen my "plans".

As if that wasn't a lesson enough, I found a book today that I was going to write. No two books on the same subject are alike you say. True enough, but I don't know. This is a pretty narrow, contemporary subject. Not sure there's room for another book on it. I'll have to check the book out when it's released but I am doubtful.

Sure, I can make other plans and write other books. But the lesson I want to take away for today is to get to work! Waiting is for losers. One of these days I'd like to win.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

I just learned that my little picture book, Bedtime Monster, is coming out in four formats! English/Spanish translation and English only. Both in both hardcover and paperback. Raven Tree Press is known for their english/spanish translation picture books, so that is all I expected. And only in hardcover. I wish I could find my catalog to see if this is the norm. Will I ever learn to not carry important papers around and not set them down in completely random places!?!

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

It's been so crazy around here since I went to the society of children's book writers and illustrators conference I haven't even had a chance to look at my notes. I did manage to pull them from my bag and set them on top of my computer, but that's as far as I've gotten. I'd better hurry up and type them up before my random pieces of paper become engulfed by all my other random pieces of paper and I can't find them anymore. (Yes, I'm a total dork. I forgot to bring a notepad to the conference and had to write on the back of my computer printouts I had in my backpack. Brilliant planning, eh? Um yeah, really, I was planning! Reduce, reuse, recycle!)

There is one thing that keeps running through my mind that I did retain from the conference. Mo Willems said that if there is only a few words on a page, the reader reads slower. If there is a whole bunch of words on a page, they read faster. And yes, it's true! I do it with all of his books. There's always that one page with lots of words and I read fast and it evokes the feeling that really brings the characters problem to light. Yes, Sam is really having a bad time and I can feel it! Check out Leonardo the Terrible Monster and you'll know it too. It's funny how something like this is so obvious, but I still don't get it until someone tells it to me. I wonder what other nuggets of knowledge I have buried in my pile.

Now I know this doesn't help you writers of long books. Sorry, maybe I'll find something for you when I look through my notes. But as a picture book writer it's definitely something to think about.